If Congress blocks Defense Department plans to raise TRICARE fees for military retirees and beneficiary co-pays on drug prescriptions filled off base, the services will have to make even deeper cuts in force strength than now planned, the military’s top health official told lawmakers last week. “Given the constraints of the Budget Control Act, if […]

Christina Calloway Farmers in Roosevelt and Curry counties participating in the Department of Agriculture’s Conservation Reserve program in 2011 received a combined $9.95 million in rental payments. A voluntary program introduced in 1986, the CRP pays agricultural producers to turn environmentally sensitive crop land into conservation areas by planting native grasses. This year’s four-week CRP […]

Dave Wagner Mark McAfee says he has no problem with the Portales’ Rams effort. He just wants to see them fine-tune the technique as they try to bounce back from a 1-9 record in 2010. The Rams open their season on Friday against Las Vegas Robertson at Greyhound Stadium, and McAfee is hopeful a relatively […]

By Army Sgt. 1st Class Michael J. Carden: American Forces Press Service WASHINGTON — The change from Operation Iraqi Freedom to Operation New Dawn does not affect the pays and entitlements troops serving in Iraq receive, a Pentagon spokeswoman said Sept. 1. Servicemembers deployed to Iraq will still receive hostile fire/imminent danger pay, hardship-duty pay […]

By Sharna Johnson: Freedom New Mexico Clovis may soon be forced to change the way it destroys stray dogs and cats. Euthanasia seems poised to become the law of the state. And while both sides in what was a contentious issue in Clovis say they accept this, the question of who pays the cost of […]

Staff and Wire Reports The federal government is making it cheaper for ranchers to use about 209,000 acres of protected land in Curry County for grazing and haying this year. Federal Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer said Tuesday that high crop prices and tight food supplies have increased the demand for farm land. The livestock industry […]